I can't defend Domestic Girlfriend. There's incest, there's grooming, and it definitely plays out like a hentai plot. The show isn't invested in critiquing bad behavior; in fact, it glamorizes it. Watching this show is like seeing how deep the rabbit hole goes with both eyes closed.

I doubt I'm going to convince you to watch an anime about a teenager trying to fuck his two stepsisters, one of which is his adult teacher, but let me explain why Domestic Girlfriend moved and enthralled me to no end.

Better Than It Has Any Right To Be

For a show built around the main character, 17-year-old Natsuo Fujii, falling in love with his stepsisters, Hina Tachibana and Rui Tachibana, Domestic Girlfriend is so much better than it has any right to be.

For one, it’s an absolute masterclass in pacing. Every episode has at least one Oh shit! moment that’ll give you enough reason to queue up the next episode. What's more is that Natsuo never manages to become an unbearable character since he has more than just sex on the brain.

There’s a real sense that Natsuo isn’t just in it to get the girl but rather to do everything he can to make everybody happy while staying true to his feelings. Plus, the will-they-won’t-they dynamics with the leading ladies never feel forced: they’ve got excellent chemistry and compatibility, but there are some very good reasons not to date your sisters. Especially when one's an adult and you're a kid.

Domestic Girlfriend also does a good job of making you believe that Hina and Rui would actually fall in love with Natsuo. For Hina, Natsuo represents everything her married, good-for-nothing boyfriend isn’t, while for Rui, Natsuo is a kindred spirit who makes her feel seen, heard, and valued for the first time in her young life.

Perhaps most importantly, these characters fighting their feelings for one another in the face of being related (and in the case of Hina, being his teacher and significantly older) but inevitably succumbing to emotions they cannot control seems like a genuine, believable struggle.

The atmosphere of the show is just superb, too. When it comes to incest in anime, usually it’s framed comically. It’s like the writer is smirking at you with every scene where something spicy happens between brother and sister, like with Eromanga Sensei, Oreimo, or a million others.

But Domestic Girlfriend is a thoroughly moody, heady show. There are a few lighthearted moments, sure, but it’s very much a drama with a few happy moments, not a comedy with a few sad scenes. The tone here makes the relationship drama seem like it has real stakes, like it has a real impact.

And about those sad scenes…

Scenes That Keep Me Up At Night: The Momo Date

Momo Kashiwabara is introduced as a slut that nobody at school likes, except the boys who pretend to like her long enough to get their nuts. But it turns out that Momo isn’t some whore: she’s an intelligent, lonely girl who just can’t seem to find anybody that won’t treat her like shit. And without involved parents or a strong social circle, the only attention she can get is from men by fucking them.

Momo brings Natsuo home to play the only card she has to try and get someone to stay: sex. As she’s taking her clothes off, he sees some marks on her wrists. Momo tells him that a lot of men turn around and walk out on her if they notice. So, instead of fucking, Natsuo makes dinner. While eating, Natsuo tells Momo that he doesn’t think it’s a good idea to date somebody you depend on. He suggests they be friends, instead.

This was a lesson that took me a long time to learn and an even longer time to understand. Hell, I still might not have finished my education on this particular topic, and I'm already an adult. To see a character in a degenerate incest anime so succinctly understand this fundamental truth moved me to no end.

Scenes That Keep Me Up At Night: The Hina Trip

At the beach, Natsuo finally says the quiet part out loud: I love you, Hina. Obviously, she knows that already, and obviously, she has feelings for him, too. But this is the first time it’s directly brought up in conversation. It’s the quintessential anime confession. Hina tells him they should keep their relationship secret. She says they should hide it from their friends, from their family, from the wider world, and be together. Then, she grabs Natsuo’s hand and starts walking off into the ocean, pulling him along with her.

Confused, Natsuo asks what she’s doing. Hina tells him they’re committing suicide because that’s what being together would mean. It would mean giving up their entire lives because a mid-20s teacher dating her younger brother (and student) would destroy them both. This felt like an ancient Greek tragedy. Like a Shakespearean moment. From the first episode, the viewer knows everything is going to end in tears, and you assume the characters realize it, too, but seeing them actually acknowledge it is so powerful.

We're undoubtedly watching the tragic downfall of our main characters, but nobody, not even the characters themselves, can stop it. It’s poetic and sad, but more than anything else, it’s human. Going up against every ounce of reason, emotion somehow finds a way. There’s nothing more human than that.

In Conclusion: You Won’t Watch, But You Should

There are tons of reasons to hate Domestic Girlfriend, and incest is just the most obvious one. It’s morally questionable at best, melodramatic, gratuitous, frustrating, and the ending proved nobody learned anything.

But it's also an extraordinarily heartfelt show that dives headfirst into weird, disturbing, and thoroughly interesting relationships. It’s about broken people making bad choices that hurt each other, and if that’s not the story of my life, I don’t know what is, so I can’t help but relate.

If there’s any part of you that’s even a tiny bit curious, give it a watch.